Yesterday, Andris drove more than 3 hours from our farm to Jelgava city where Latvian Agriculture University is located. In his mind: hemp straws. This idea came to us a while ago, we believe that hemp straws can be an ecological alternative to plastic, steel and glass straws. The straws can be made out of a hemp stalk which is an organic and natural material, completely biodegradable. No pesticides are used on our crops and all the straws can be made manually by us.

So, this is the idea Andris brought to the professors of the Latvian Agriculture Unversity. We wanted to know what research is needed to develop a hemp straw. The meeting was very productive and we know now the steps we have to take. First of all, we will have to make many tests here at home concerning the visual aspects, for example, how to cut the hemp stalk correctly. This might sound like an easy job, but oh boy! it is hard to find the proper tool which will make the perfect cuts. We will have to investigate this further, but we are pretty confident that we will find the solution for this and other questions we have about hemp straws.

The University on their end will develop all the lab tests necessary for this product be approved for human consumption. We all want to make sure hemp straws do not rot or get mold. They also gave us a great idea which is to develop hemp sticks for sushi! This sounds awesome! Making a hemp straw that can be converted in chopsticks is such an amazing idea!

We will keep you updated on the progress of these products. Fingers crossed 🤞

It is quite hard to choose from all the great moments we had this year. We are truly blessed to have had so many adventures and fun. But here is a selection of the best moments we had in 2018:

1. Our Hemp bars received the award for the best plant-based product in Riga Food 2018. It was people's vote so this gives us a lot of happiness and motivation to keep going! Our award will give us the chance to travel to Germany in January and take part in the Green Week 2019! We will keep you posted!

2. Because of Hemp, we have traveled this year to Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium.

3. We have participated in 3 of the most amazing and interesting hemp events of Hemp in Europe, namely: 8th International Hemp Building Symposium, Hemp2020: Entrepreneurship & Investing and the International Cannabis Policy Conference.

4. This year we have been visited by over 1000 people that took part in tours, tastings, workshops, and courses at the farm. Next year we will only be open on the weekends, so if you want to guarantee your activity at the farm, you should book with us in advance.

5. We have successfully delivered another Hemp Building Course at the farm. This year we had Kerth from HempToday joining us. Next year the Hemp Building Course is already available for booking, take advantage of the early bird price! Come and learn how to build with Hemp in Latvia!

6. We have reached a total amount of 550 euros from online and offline donations for our Hemp Museum. If you would like to support us, our crowdfunding campaign is still ON!

7. We have developed over 8 different hemp products and we hope next year we will be producing way more! Check out our online shop to see what we have done so far.

8. Last but not least, after 10 years together we decided to finally get married this year! We enjoyed being surrounded by our closest friends and family ❤

What an amazing year we had! We truly hope you will continue to follow us in this great adventure we call life and perhaps we will meet at Obelisk Farm in 2019! Visit us!

There are many 2018 success stories we could share but the most important is without any doubt the story of our neighbor Ms. Dzidra. If you are following us on Facebook you probably already know about the situation that took place last August near our farm. If you don't know yet, long story short: on 27th August an anonymous call was made to the police accusing Ms. Dzidra of growing marijuana in her garden. The police came to her home and took more than 300 plants that were tested and proof later to be hemp with low levels of THC that did not exceed the legal amount. We were informed by the local major about this situation and invited to come to her home as witnesses. The whole situation really upset us and we decided to use Facebook to share the experience we had. The post went viral and many shared their opinions about this situation and cannabis. Soon, it became a national debate.

Later, the police apologized to Ms. Dzidra and have already started reviewing their standard procedures. Dzidra will also be financially compensated for her losses.

All in all, this was our most successful story! Even though this was not fully our experience, we all win with this case. As the police also mentioned, there are more and more farmers growing hemp and the way the police acts should not cause anyone harm. Additionally, hemp is part of the Latvian history and culture and Ms. Dzidra case brought to light issues related with cannabis policy that was long overdue.

We are now setting-up our Hemp Museum, which will be dedicated to cannabis in Latvia and also to the different uses of cannabis. If you would like to support us creating this museum, you can donate here. Every act counts, it doesn't matter how big or small your donation is, it will help us achieve our dream!

See below why you should attend the International Cannabis Policy Conference (ICPC) 2018

1) A unique opportunity

According to the ICPC: "from 5-7th December the UN Commission of Narcotic Drugs (CND), which is the only United Nations body dealing with Cannabis policy,will receive the final scheduling recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) on cannabidiol (40th ECDD) and cannabis in all forms (41st ECDD). These recommendations will be presented to the 187 Member States at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) headquarters in Vienna, Austria. The CND gathering will be the final global meeting before the High-Level UN Session on drug policy (March 2019) where new Cannabis Treaty scheduling and the 2019-2029 plan of action will be voted by the Countries. These decisions will offer opportunities for countries to develop innovative policies and new market perspectives. TheInternational Cannabis Policy Conference, December 7-9th 2018will be the last opportunity for key stakeholders to give their input on this very crucial issue".

2) Enhance your knowledge

You want to hear about Cannabis and the environment? There is a session for that. You want to hear about the past and future challenges of the global Cannabis markets? There's a session for that. You want to hear about Women & Cannabis, there is a session for that. You want to know more about sustainable uses & delivery methods, there is a session for that. You want to hear about sustainable health systems, policies & settings to ensure access to Cannabis medicines, there is a session for that too. The event is packed with sessions "with top research, industry and policy leaders". The event will also present "contribution of cannabis & industrial hemp markets and products innovations relevant to the achievements of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), a global framework for sustainable societies."

3) +15 Exhibitors

You can connect with vendors in the expo and learn more about Cannabis food, products, and services. The exhibitors are industry experts that know what is happening in the world of Cannabis. By investing your time in the exposition hall you will get the answers to your questions and learn about the present and future of Cannabis.

4) Get your certificate

By participating in the event you will earn a valuable certification. According to ICPC, all participants will be able to obtain a certificate of attendance from the Registration Desk.

HOW DO YOU REGISTER? You can see more information about the event here and register here!

We came back from our hemp road trip, full of energy and new ideas. One of these new ideas was the creation of the first hemp museum here in Latvia. We are extremely happy with the support the idea is been having and this gives us the strength to move forward. Besides the plan to open a museum, we also came back with new ideas for our hemp products. Well, some are not so new, we just realized that we could finally put them in our online shop. We will explain to you why, shortly.

But, first things first... - our hemp tea. This is without any doubt the most sought and adored product we have. Everyone really loves it, and we love it too! There are many reasons why our hemp tea is so appreciated. First of all, hemp tea is one of the world's healthiest drink. Hemp tea is known for containing CBD and other cannabinoids that can help relieve insomnia, digestion problem, migraines, soreness of any kind, respiratory problems and asthma. CBD has a calming effect on the parasympathetic nervous system with a beneficial impact on the psychological state and allows to initiate the immunity system of the body. We will be sharing soon, the results from our hemp tea tests but we can let you know that usually, the flower from Fedora variety has up to 4% CBD.

But do not worry Hemp tea lovers, we will keep having our hemp tea with buds and leaves and the chopped one as well. But we will have 2 new additions: fermented hemp tea and purple hemp tea. The fermented hemp tea has a lovely nutty and unique flavor and has been naturally fermented. This is a perfect tea for those who want to strengthen their immune system. Our purple hemp tea was a surprise for us. Meaning that we didn't know that hemp could turn purple. Yes! We blamed it on the weather because we haven't seen it before or heard about it. As we mentioned, we are still waiting for the results on our hemp teas, but fingers crossed that this purple tea has higher CBD than our "regular" hemp tea.

Next in line, is our hemp peanut butter. Yummy, is so delicious. And we want to share this deliciousness with you. Soon this product will be available in our online shop. So far, visitors were able to taste and buy this product on the farm. We were a bit afraid of shipping the hemp peanut butter. But after many tests and also our road trip, we are now 99.9% sure that the quality of the product remains the same even when it has to travel long distances. So, we are very happy to add this tasty and healthy hemp peanut butter in our online shop.

And yes! Yes! The hemp snack that got Andris the prize of "Best plant-based product" in Riga Food a few months ago will also be in our online shop. Our hemp bar was carefully made by Andris, after months of experiments until he found the perfect recipe. The hemp bar contains hemp seeds, oat, and sugar. It is an excellent source of protein and it will certainly give you that extra energy boost. It goes super well with a cup of our hemp tea.

Finally, we are now designing something very special for you. We can't say much about it, but we can give you some clues. These new products are made with 100% hemp fiber and they are being created for children but there will be also something for the grown-ups. We are working very hard to make in time for Christmas, so fingers crossed! In the meantime, if you find that some of our products would be a great present for your family, friends, colleagues, staff or partners, and you wish to order from us (quantities above 50) do get in touch. We can provide you with a list and prices of our products.

If you are following us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter you already know that we came from our hemp road trip full of energy and ideas. One of this was to set up a Hemp Museum here at the farm. We started by sharing that we wanted to sell the books that were located in the library barn to get space and money to set up the museum. Many friends suggested that we should create a fundraising campaign to help us achieve this plan. And so we did! We set up a 600€ campaign on GoFundMe that will enable us to purchase lighting, storage, and display system for the museum. In the first 3 days, we received from our donors the total amount of 100€! Our friends at HempToday also help us spread the word and share our story in this article. After 8 days, we have been blessed with huge support from many people and we are now halfway to reach our goal. These are extremely exciting time here at the farm. If you haven't donated and wish to contribute to our campaign here is the link: https://www.gofundme.com/cannabis-museum-in-latvia

New ideas mean new products as well. These days we have been busy creating and recreating our hemp products. It's a process that has back and forwards moments but we truly excited about the final results. We have been meeting people also interested in helping us throughout this process. This week, we meet Inga from ॐ junjala that took from photos of our products. Since our friend David came to visit us and try our new products we began a journey of discovery. Here are some of the moments we shared together:

We expect exciting and busy times ahead. But the most important is the special journey we are in.

Autumn is here and on these rainy and cold days, we really like to snuggle our tummies with something warm, healthy and yummy! From the seeds of the hemp, we can obtain a very healthy supplement rich in nutrients, especially fiber - Hemp Protein Powder - which has high digestibility that makes the work of our organism much easier to take advantage of nutrients. In order to extract the main compounds responsible for these active principles, hemp seeds must be submitted to the following processes:

Cold pressure: basically it is a procedure of mechanic extraction to obtain the nutrients present in the composition of Hemp;

Crushing: A step that will transform the compound obtained by cold pressing into a very homogeneous and protein-rich powder;

Separation of waste: and finally, the last process is in charge of eliminating the particles that were not very well refined by the previous steps.

Of course, there may be variations in these procedures, as the goal may be to preserve different active principles. Nevertheless, essentially, the processes can be separated this way.

To understand why hemp protein powder is a great food to add to your diet, nothing better than knowing that hemp protein powder:

Presents in its composition omega 3 and, therefore, help you to take advantage of the benefits offered by this nutrient;

Due to the richness of proteins, it is an excellent source to supplement the diet;

Vegan and vegetarian diets can be greatly benefited by the use of hemp protein because of their richness;

Fatty acids are very important for the maintenance of the skin. Therefore, nothing better than making use of Hemp protein powder;

The hemp seed is considered an excellent source for obtaining vegetable protein.

Here at home, we use hemp protein in many of our favorite dishes. One of them is the perfect Autumn recipe - Hemp protein powder pancakes. So, we'll share this super easy to make recipe!

Ingredients:

2 cup of hemp milk ( we used hemp milk but you can use whatever you like: cow milk, almond milk, coconut milk

1 cup of flour

1 cup of hemp protein powder

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Prep Time: 10mins

Cook Time: 7mins

Preparation:

Mix all the ingredients until a homogeneous consistency is obtained. Place a portion of the dough in a circular shape in a pre-heated, non-stick frying pan. Cover with a lid. When the dough begins to make "bubbles" turn and leave a few seconds, and repeat until the dough looks ready. These amounts give for approximately 4-5 medium-sized pancakes.

We stuffed our pancakes with a homemade raspberry and apple compote made by ourselves and a couple of hand-picked raspberries from our garden.

Now that the summer is finally winding down and the harvest is coming into all its glory, we think that there is no better time than now to jump in your car and head out of the city. Our hemp farm is a great destination to visit not only to get out of the house, away from the television/laptop and phone screens, and into a much needed fresh air, but we also offer great learning opportunities for all ages. Below is a list of reasons why we think you should visit our hemp farm this harvest season!

1. You will learn something new

In our hemp farm, we offer different educational activities for all ages, adults and kids alike! Whether is learning about hemp by taking a tour, tasting delicious and healthy hemp products or taking in part in our workshops, at the end you will definitely know something about hemp that you didn't know when you arrive. The wide variety of activities available on the farm can help stimulate your appetite for learning about hemp uses and benefits.

2. You will support a family farm

When you visit our farm, you not only learn about hemp you will be also supporting our family farm. Without the support from visitors and friends, we would not be able to continue the work we have been carrying out for the past 3 years. We hope that by providing the best products we can at reasonable prices you will find the importance of contributing to preserving the health of our agriculture, environment, and local food system.

3. You will reconnect with nature

All in all, we are spending way too much time in front of screens. On the way to work or school, in the car, on the bus, before eating and before going to sleep, the screen presence is stronger than ever. Taking some time to come to our farm, will help you get out and into the wild and green fields all over the farm. Many studies have shown that the exposure to screens is associated with increased fatigue and depression. While studies on outdoor have shown that it improves mental health and decreases feelings of stress and anxiety. Read more about it here

Overall, we believe that a big part of our visitors have a great pleasure visiting our farm because they get to know us, chat with us, walk throw the hemp fields and they learn a lot about this plant. We believe that our enthusiasm for hemp is contagious and this feeling is spreading among the visitors. We know of many people who after visiting us they started growing hemp. This gives us a great joy! If you feel this is the right time to come to our farm, you are welcome to pay us a visit! We are now only open during the weekends and as always you need to book your activitiy beforehand.

A quick search on the catalog of Dainu skapī (http://dainuskapis.lv/) revealed a significant number of a special type of folk-poems, called "dainas" about cannabis. We thought this could be interesting for those that like us want to know more about the history of hemp in Latvia. We believe these poems have great merit because they sum up in a few words all the experience collectively accumulated. Since these are pearls of wisdom, we put up a list of 10 that prove cannabis is part of Latvian culture.

Nowadays, hemp milk seems to be an option that is attracting many. It surely has caught up our attention! In addition to being super-easy to make at home, only two ingredients are needed. Two! This 100% natural, plant-based milk is an excellent choice for vegans and vegetarians and for those who have lactose intolerance.

With only two ingredients, you can make a 100% natural hemp milk, being an easy, economical and of course, delicious option!

Hemp milk has become our dairy alternative choice for three reasons:

1) Hemp seeds have a great taste, we all love the nutty flavor!

2) Hemp is healthy! Hemp seeds are a great source of vitamins, amino acids, and fatty acids.

3) We grow hemp and anyone can do it! This is, of course, a cheap and readily available alternative.

All in all, hemp is a very versatile plant. Flour, milk, oil are some of the products resulting from this plant full of benefits. For being a healthy and tasty alternative, hemp milk has everything to be part of your menu. You can drink it pure or even include in other recipes.

Here is the how we make our hemp milk:

We use 1 glass of hemp seeds and 3 glasses of water.

First, we blend the hemp seeds in water until it becomes smooth. We usually put our blender on a high-speed setting for 2 minutes. Then, we strain the pulp from the liquid (hemp milk). You can refrigerate or drink it straight away. And voilà, there you have it. You're own hemp milk. Cheers!

Recently, someone asked us what could they expect when visiting our hemp farm. This was a quite surprising question! Because we thought that all the information we could provide about our tours, tastings, workshops, and courses, had been given in different ways through our webpage, facebook, instagram and twitter. However, the query made us wonder about your experience when you visit us. Obelisk Farm is a hemp farm but what else can you hope to experience when you visit us?

Let's start with the directions to the farm, when you arrive at Obeliškas village you will see a sign "Obelyshky" and our wooden "Obelisk Farm" sign. You should follow the signs and you will be at the farm in around 3 minutes by car and 5 minutes by bicycle.

Upon arrival, you can park your car or bicycle in the parking spaces available. Andris will be there to warmly welcome you. Your hemp activity (tour, tasting, workshop or course) starts at this moment. After a brief introduction to hemp and the work, we carry out here at the farm, you will be invited to enter our hemp labyrinth (as we like to call it). You will have the chance to see up close our hemp plants, to smell it and to feel it. This is an unforgettable experience according to many of our previous guests.

Andris is most of the times the "main" host although Gabriela and Fredis sometimes also jump in and become "host assistants". Given the fact, that we are a family run farm, everyone is happy to participate in the daily farm activities in their own way. With reference to children, our farm is naturally a family-friendly place! Moreover, children under the age of 12, enter free of charge.

We have several activities that you can choose from. All of them, as we mentioned before, are meant for you to learn about hemp and find ways to integrate this extraordinary plant in your daily life. If you would like to have a short excursion you should definitely join our hemp tour. A free tasting of our hemp tea is always included in the tours. You will be able to drink as much as you want! And if you would like to bring some tea with you, our hemp shop is the place to visit! On the other hand, if you want to expand your knowledge regarding hemp and have a hands-on experience you should choose one of our workshops available on the hemp school. At the moment, we have 2 workshops available: hemp paper and hemp as a building material. In the hemp paper workshop, you can learn how to make your own hemp paper. We will take you through all the steps until you get your own handmade piece of hemp paper which you can take home after the workshop. The hemp as a building material workshop seems to be a great choice if you are interested in the very basics of hemp building. If you would like to get a deep understanding of the issue, we advise you to take part in one of our hemp building courses. Furthermore, if you would fancy trying out some of our hemp products, you should certainly choose the hemp tastings. Besides tasting hemp tea, peanut butter, protein, oil, bread, seeds and our hemp bar, you will also witness a live demonstration of how to make hemp milk.

By the way, all activities can be combined. So, let's say you want to take a tour around the farm and also have a tasting (which is actually what many of our guests do) go for it! Whatever combination you feel like it suits your needs/expectations just let us know. All in all, Obelisk Farm offer is made for you to explore as much as you want the hemp plant. We always hope that after your time here you will be more informed about cannabis, it's uses and benefits. And that, the journey we designed will encourage you to incorporate hemp in your daily life. Until the end of August, we will be open every day but from the 3rd of September only on the weekends. So, please make sure to book in advance so we can arrange the best day and time for your visit! We will be expecting you!

“On the Hemp Farm with” is a series of interviews we conduct with people involved in the hemp field, this might include hemp farmers, shops, enthusiasts, companies, investors, and entrepreneurs.

This month we interview Ricardo Pereira, founder of HempLife - a hemp farm located in the south of Portugal, Algarve.

How did you come up with your business idea?
I've always loved the plant Cannabis since I was very young. I always believed that this plant could really make a big change in the world and we are witnessing it right now! I did some research and found out that planting Hemp is legal in Portugal, so I decided to take a shot at it. I really believe this industry has a lot to give.

How important is Hemp to the project?
It is the Holy grail of the project for sure!

Who is your primary audience - and who is the more unexpected one?
Nowadays we have much more people informed about the beneficial effects of cannabinoids, so I would say that we aim for people from 8 (with parental consent, of course) to 80 years old. The more unexpected I would say is everyone who is uninformed regarding the legalization and everything else related to this plant. I realized people jump to conclusions when talking about it, and I really want to change that.

What is the greatest difficulty you feel about HempLife?
I would say the burocracy and some regulations about the licence for planting Hemp.

And your biggest achievement?
Having a Hemp Farm/business.

What are the upcoming challenges or plans to develop HempLife?
Setting up a platform to help others to become Hemp related businesses and make a change in Portugal.

What tips can you give us and to anyone starting and/ or wanting to develop their own Hemp business?If it really moves you, no matter what anybody says, just go for it!

Final words: Thank you for this opportunity!
Love you all, and we're together in this HempLife

📌 "On the Hemp Farm with" is a monthly edition whose aim is to introduce hemp businesses/brands/products/entrepreneurs. Would you like to participate? Send usan email to obeliskfarm@gmail.com

After we wrote 10 Hemp Projects in Latvia You Should Know About, we decided to dig deeper and expand our research to all of Europe. We started listing the projects we know, and then we add other hemp businesses, services, museums, organizations, farms etc. that we found during our research. If you are a hemp enthusiast or if you are simply curious about hemp projects in Europe, keep reading we made this list for you!

When we began to grow hemp, we search almost everywhere for detail information about it. Youtube videos, e-books, books, contact farmers, and organizations, you name it! Since Andris doesn't have a farming academic background, we had to be sure we were doing it right. Our only experience planting was vegetables and for that reason, we were not very confident. It was not easy to find information about growing hemp, actually, there were several questions on our minds that we weren't able to find any answers. If you also have been searching for this kind of information, we hope that by the end of this article you will find most of your answers.

Ok, so let's start with our first-year experience. After we got some tips and ideas from our online and offline search, we decided to give it a try. We planted 20kg/ha of Finola seeds (read more about these seeds here: http://finola.fi/) because we wanted to produce hemp oil and we knew that Finola seeds are very good for this purpose. We found a study about Finola seeds that captured our attention: "Hempseed as a nutritional resource: An overview", J.C. Callaway (2004), especially this part (pag.68):

What went well in our first experience:

The weather was fair, a mix of sunny and rainy days. The perfect condition for our plants;

The hemp grown quite well, lots of seeds!

What went wrong:

Our plantation was a mix of hemp and weeds, at some point, it seems there were more weeds than hemp;

We did not took all that we could from the plant, we only harvest the hemp seeds;

We also lost many seeds in the drying hemp process.

Our first-year hemp fields:

Our first- year hemp harvesting:

We learn a lot from our first experience, and we thought that we would be prepared for the second year. We planted the same amount of Finola seeds, improve our drying system and realize that we could harvest way more than the hemp seeds.

What went well in our first experience:

We planted the seeds at the beginning of May and were able to harvest in the middle/end of September;

We had amazing volunteers who came to help us out, full of energy and eager to learn about hemp (would you like to volunteer at our farm during our harvesting? apply here).

What went wrong:

Rain, lots and lots of rain! We can't forget the viral video of a farmer that swim with his crop because we felt like doing something like that!

Since there was a lot of rain, the plant did not grow properly. They were quite small (even though Finola is meant to be shorter than other seeds... still our plants look like baby plants)

Birds were very keen to eat all our seeds, we install a sound system but later we got to know that this sound affects the plants and decided to stop it.

Our second-year hemp fields:

The scare birds sound system:

And what about now? How are we growing hemp.. you may wonder! Well, first of all, we took some samples of our fields to know exactly what the land was missing. We advise anyone, that wants to grow hemp to test your land first. Maybe you already done it, we didn't! And we think that we miss a big point. Because when we received the report we realize that our land was missing important minerals to allow hemp to grow healthy and strong, good PH levels are 6.0-6.6 . Our report looked like this:

After we understand what was missing, we give the land all the minerals needed - also we added lime -. We also planted more hemp seeds (30kg/ha). This year, we planted Fedora seeds, that is a French industrial hemp plant which a high content of CBD (2%-4%) and almost no THC. So, very good for our hemp tea! Additionally, it is a plant that is long and can be used for hemp fiber production. Andris says that our hemp plants are growing by the hour, and we can all agree that they look very vigorous!

We planted our hemp seeds later May/beginning June, so we hope by the end of August we will be able to harvest our hemp tea. All in all, this journey has been very interesting and as everything in life we learn as we go, but these are the things we learn so far and might be useful for you to know:

Always plant more hemp seeds per hectare to avoid weeds;

Check your land, does it miss important nutrients? Then, you should give the land what it needs;

Think about what you want the hemp plant for. Is it for hemp food? Or maybe you are looking for hemp fiber? Choose the hemp seeds according to your needs/desires.

Altogether, we can reassure you that growing your own hemp is one of the most amazing experiences! It is of course, easier to start planting hemp when you have a couple of inside tips and you feel confident about it. On our hemp farming course, we share more details about technical issues of growing the plant. Also, we have an individual consultancy program, where you can bring your queries and we will be happy to answer all your burning questions. We hope that by sharing our know-how you will be able to find some inspiration and get the courage to jump into the hemp movement! Good luck to all!

One of the questions, we most often get is how our farm looks like from the inside. Many of you, have already seen the outside hemp fields, the garden, the forest and more (if you are following us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter). But some spaces, like our hemp shop, remain in the shadows. This is why we decided to bring our hemp shop and products to light and show you what’s inside the only hemp shop in Latgale.

Andris outside of our hemp shop.

Our hemp shop is located in our cold room. One side, you can find our delicious and healthy hemp products and on the other side we store veggies, fruits, jams, chutneys and other goodies.

Hemp tea looks amazing on the wooden shelves made by Andris. Our hemp tea is also available in our online shop.

Hemp tea, hemp protein powder, and hemp chopped tea are available loose so when you visit us you can bring your own bag and take as much as you need.

Hemp peanut butter is everyone's favorite product!

Hemp oil is now available in small bottles (50ml) but we hope to have 250ml bottles available soon!

>>>>

We love what we do here at Obelisk Farm and nothing makes us happier than sharing the work we carry out in our hemp farm with everyone. Come along and visit us this summer!

Last season was a wonderful adventure that taught us so much: we learn what works for us and for you. We took notes of all your suggestions and recommendations and (re) design the Obelisk Farm experience. For those of you who have visited us in the past, and for those who plan to visit us in the near future, we have compiled a list of all the major improvements. We hope you will find eight very good reasons to come back or to visit us for the first time.

#1Hemp school

We started providing tours and seminars in a small barn, that was initially designed to be a workstation but eventually turn out to be the first point of our hemp tour. It did work rather well for the first year, but we needed a more adequated place. This is why we renovate one of our largest barns and turn it into a Hemp school. We would love you to come and visit this amazing place we created for you and where we develop workshops, tours, tastings and other hemp-themed events.

We wanted to implement this change earlier, but better now than never! This season, a section in our farm shop will sell loose hemp products. This means, that when you visit us you can bring your own bag and choose as much or as little you need. Initially, we will have hemp powder, hemp chopped tea and hemp seeds available by the kilo. Even though we will start with a small number of products that are sold without a package, we intend in the future to be a 100% package free shop.

#3 New products available in our hemp shop

At our hemp shop, you will find the true classics that we can't live without including hemp tea with seeds and buds, hemp peanut butter, hemp protein powder but also fresh discoveries, such as our hemp fragrance, hemp chopped tea, hemp soaps, and hemp magnets. Visit us to see it for yourself.

#4 Converting our library into a Hemp Museum

As you might know by now if you read our previous post, we are planning to set up our own Hemp Museum here at the farm. Our idea is to convert the barn where is now located our library into a space that displays traces of material culture, multimedia documentation, stories and interpretations of hemp in various contexts. At this moment, this is only a dream but we hope with your support we will be able to make it a reality! Thus, from now on when you visit us you will be able to browse and purchase any book available on the library and contribute to building our Hemp Museum.

#5 Hemp samples

Would you like to know what hemp fabric looks and feels like? Or perhaps, you are interested in knowing what a hempcrete brick really is. Now you can see, touch, feel or smell a wide range of hemp products! From hemp fabric to hemp rope, to hemp paper to hemp shives!

#6 Our hemp tours in several languages

Obelisk Farm tours are now available in Latvian, English, Russian and Portuguese. You can uncover all of our farm secrets in these languages! Additionally, Spanish and French languages may be available if you book in advance.

#7 New tasting menu

Our tasting menu got even tastier! You can now try out our delicacies that include wonderful hemp flapjack, our hemp tea and hemp milk, homemade hemp bread and hemp peanut butter, and also try our hemp protein powder, hemp roasted seeds, and hemp oil. Everything is so yummy! Made with love just for you!

#8 We are open every day!

From 1st May, you can visit us every day from 9 am until 7 pm. However, we will still keep the appointment only system. As we want to ensure you have the best possible experience we are not yet able to accommodate walk-ins. We can usually adjust previous day appointments but we highly recommend booking your visit at least 1 week in advance to guarantee your preferred visit time. You can contact us to book your next visit!

“On the Hemp Farm with” is a series of interviews we will conduct with people involved in the hemp field, this might include hemp farmers, shops, enthusiasts, companies, investors, and entrepreneurs. Each month you’ll learn about what’s going on in the Hemp industry and get some inside tips. Explore and discover hemp ideas and projects by following the advice of inspiring hemp experts that know hemp inside out!

Our first interview is with Manuel Duarte, the co-founder of Cânhamo Hemp House, a hemp shop located in Portugal. The shop not only sells several industrial hemp products such as textiles, beverages, hygiene products, and food products but also actively works to promote industrial hemp in Portugal.

How did you come up with your business idea? After reading Thom Hartmann's book "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight".

How important is Hemp to your project? For various reasons: the sustainability of the planet; the ecological footprint; the local and national economy and also and no less important than the previous arguments, this is the most versatile, most complete and most profitable plant on the planet. I believe it was the plant of the past and is already being the plant for the future.

Who is your primary audience - and who is the more unexpected one? Young people, of course. The most unlikely is the septic ones.

What is the greatest difficulty you feel about Cânhamo House Hemp? Only the transformation of the material that does not exist in Portugal.

And your biggest achievement? Beyond what has been said is still the transformation, although soon we will have advances and much surprises.

What are the upcoming challenges or plans to develop Cânhamo House Hemp? The central question is the lobbies: oil; cellulose; pharmaceutical company and the cement company that has controlled the media.

What tips can you give us and to anyone starting and/ or wanting to develop their own Hemp business? From our experience, the most important is the relationship with the population with concrete products transformed and at fairs and festivals.

📌 "On the Hemp Farm with" is a monthly edition whose aim is to introduce hemp businesses/brands/products/entrepreneurs. Would you like to participate? Send us an email to obeliskfarm@gmail.com

Today we got our first issue of the Broccoli magazine! Hemp Hemp Hooray! For those of you, who never heard about the magazine, well... in short: if you love Cannabis you need to get yours! Broccoli was developed by a team of women that research and shape "the stoner culture by looking at cannabis through a global art, culture and fashion lens." We discovered Brocolli magazine a few months ago and were so excited to receive their issue to display here at the farm whenever you come to visit us.

There are many reasons why we are proud to have Broccoli magazine at our farm and why we love Broccoli so much, but here comes a few:

Changing the way we look at Cannabis and it's users

When some people think about Cannabis they tend to associate with a dreadlocked guy wearing a Bob Marley's T-shirt and smoking a joint. However, Broccoli shows us a different side, on the cover of the first issue we can see a delicate flower arrangement filled with Cannabis plants that amazed us for it's out of the box design and unparallel elegance. Broccoli does make a stand for the legalization of Cannabis and against the stigmatization of its users.

For Women by Women

100% made by women! The magazine hears the female voices, not only about Cannabis but about various topics such as art, creativity, music, design and more. Cannabis is an element they use as a mean of interact with all other aspects of women's lives.

Content and Design

CBD, horoscopes, Ikebana, weed ice creams, Mexican candle making and so much more! The content of Broccoli is so diverse and each of its 80 pages will make you go on a journey of (re) discovering the universe of Cannabis culture. The design is just WOW! We especially love page 69!

Is Free!

Broccoli is offered free of charge in the United States, but outside you will have to pay for the freight. The founder and creative director of Broccoli magazine, Anja Charbonneau was very kind to send us the first issue (even though it is sold out) and we even got their awesome weed postcards set as a gift!

If you are looking for a magazine that is unique in every sense, you should get Broccoli and support this exceptional project! Whenever you visit us, you can also browse the magazine!

Last year, we had a unique opportunity to learn how to build with hemp from the hemp builder expert, Steve Allin. The project took place on our farm and it was designed to give participants a hands-on experience in the basic building processes. We learn how to mix the building material using the correct measurements, filling the frames that we build previously with the mixture (hemp, water, and lime), create the tapping tool and how to tap the mixture correctly and finally we learn how to plaster the walls.

Before the project, Andris build the frames since we already knew what we wanted. The main idea was to renovate our house porch so we could have a functional structure. At this stage, we decided that we wanted the frame to be visible but it's entirely up to the builder if he wants to have a visible or "invisible" frame.

In regards to the materials, we use to build the porch the list is not extensive since besides the mixer, wooden frames and plywood we only needed water, hemp shives, and lime. This last substance should be used with care as it's harmful when in contact with the skin. For this reason, we used gloves and protecting masks because of the dust generated when mixing.

Since our building structure was small, it didn't take us long to fill in the frames. The workload was divided in the following way: one to two participants were responsible for the mixer and bringing the mixture to other ones who were filling in the frame and tapping the mixture. When a section was filled with the mixture we took out the plywood that was holding the mixture and lift it up to continue the process. This needs to be repeated until all the wall is filled with the mixture. We only use one mixer considering the size of the structure, however, if you are planning to build something bigger is important that you have bigger mixers or a second one.

While building we had rain showers that made the hemp walls to dry a bit slower. This needs to be taken into consideration when building with hemp. We didn't have the chance to finish our roof but we plan to do it this year. Still, we were lucky enough to use hemp plaster and decorate the wall with a figure. Edvinas, a participant from Lithuania made a wolf figure with respect to a wolf organization that he represents.

After the course, we decided to cover the structure and put back the wood, the same as the rest of the house. But this is entirely up to you! You can cover the structure you build or leave it as it is. We get a bit addicted to this kind of experience and that's why we want to repeat it. So, this year, we will have another hemp building course here at the farm. We have loads of ideas we want to develop and we're sure we'll build amazing stuff. Additionally, having Kerht Reyer, the founder of HempToday as a guest will definitely be another unique opportunity to learn more about hemp industry.